The captain dispatched, Alice returned the Red Queen to her holster, stepped over the captain's bleeding body, settled down in the pilot's seat, and began examining the controls. "I reeeealy hafta pee," she whispered to herself, wiping her hands on her dress and seeking the buttons to start the engines.

As Alice settles down in front of the controls, everyone else piles onboard. As she tries to figure out which one is the 'go' button, Emily sits down in the co-pilot seat. She pulls on a headset radio and flips a switch which starts the engines cycling. As the rotors begin to slowly rotate, she glances at Alice as she buckles herself in. "I figure you can use a hand."

The Vertibird wheels across the hangar deck toward the freight elevator, rotors slowly turning. Hondo hops out and runs ahead, slapping the big red 'LIFT CALL' button. The elevator begins descending oh-so-slowly, and something heavy and metallic detaches from the hangar ceiling and clatters off the Vertibird's hull with a loud CLANK.

Logged

VAO Control; Crafty Freelancer; Freethinker

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

Alice blushed as she saw Elsie pull on a headset. Donning her own headset, she reached for the straps and buckles and clipped herself into the chair. "Did you tell everyone to strap down?" she inquired.

CLANK

"What the hell was that!? We need out!" The budding mad scientist pilot began testing the throttles and pitch adjusters, hoping those flight simulator games in the vault are accurate.

Only after everyone is on board does Marcus turn to the captain's body. Not willing to waste any of the good medical supplies, he checks if he is still alive and tries to stabilize him the old fashioned way.

If at any time he dies, Marcus will move to grab his shoulders, motion for Franklin to take the legs, and chuck him out of the vertibird.

If he stabilizes, Marcus will strap the captain and himself into a chair.

If anyone complains that I am trying to save the captain, I'll just ask how often we'll have a chance to question someone of his rank and indicate to Elsie that I am sure the brotherhood would like to have a chance to speak to him.

Information extracted from the captain seems like a great segue to another adventure!

Emily glances briefly at Alice, nodding at the question. As she flicks several switches, more lights come on across the control panels. "How many hours do you have?" The question seems like a genuine one. Behind the two amateur space-cadets, Marcus works on stabilising the unconscious Enclave officer. Luckily the wound isn't that bad - if Alice had actually shot him with the Red Queen (instead of clubbing him over the head), he'd be in much worse condition.

Meanwhile, Hondo turns to look for the source of the loud noise. It looks like a piece of the ceiling has split off, and fallen onto the vertibird. The fragment has bounced off the hull and left a shallow gash down the side of the tail section. It looks purely cosmetic - you hope. When the lift reaches bottom, Hondo hops aboard the vertibird, as it begins its painfully slow ascent.

Finally the lift rumbles to a halt on the flight deck - the shrieking wind whips past the cockpit canopy and the open crew hatch, and acrid black smoke spews from the forward port side of the stricken vessel. Grit and tint pieces of debris patter off the vertibird's hull. Emily pushes the throttle forward, gunning the engines as she prepares for lift-off. Then, just as you're all finally about to make your escape, Alice and Emily (and anyone else up front) spots it - an enormous... thing, glistening with a layer of afterbirth perches on the edge of the flight deck, observing the building tops as they whip by underneath.

Yeah, he's stabilised. Also, if you want to engage this thing with the vertibird, it's armed with the equivalent of an M134 that deals laser damage. However, I should point out that it is Collosal, it looks REALLY mean, and you have abunch of terrified civvies on board.

Logged

VAO Control; Crafty Freelancer; Freethinker

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

Alice looked over at Emily and smiled. "Over a hundred in helicopters. In the simulator. Vault has good ones. First time in a vertibird though. You?" Her smile disappeared and her face paled as she caught a glimpse of the creature.

"This can't be good," Alice whispered as she pushed the throttles to full power to prepare for the vertibird's escape.

[spoiler]Gotta drive, more will follow.I thought I was going to find a computer yesterday. No such luck, and my phone is a poor substitute.

Side note, if the thing does not have missile weapons, we can stay back, hovering and lasering it while it falls from the sky, perhaps staying to confirm its demise.

With a thrumming from the engines, Emily and Alice throttle-up and lift off. The Ark slowly accelerates away beneath you as you turn to bring the vertibirds guns to bear. At that precise moment, the huge thing leaps from the Ark's flight deck, impacting a passing skyscraper with an audible BOOM. Fragments of concrete and glass are thrown outwards from the point of impact - Emily growls "Fuck this" and pull hard on the stick, slewing the craft off to port and away from the Ark. Its lucky she did. The stricken vessel slams into the tops of a dozen buildings at once, throwing up a tremendous cloud of debris. Its then that you realise that the vertibird hasn't lost enough forward momentum to avoid the collision itself, as you plough almost head-on into the cloud. A few pattering dints rapidly escalate to BANG BANG impacts. The vertibird shakes violently, as it is thrown from side to side. The last thing most of you hear is the 'beep beep beep' of an alarm in the cockpit, and then with one final, bone-jarring impact, everything goes black...

Logged

VAO Control; Crafty Freelancer; Freethinker

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

...until your senses return, bringing with them lancing pain and the groans of the wounded. From your skewed perspective, the vertibird appears to be laying on its side, and the interior is dark apart from two sources of light - the flickering control panels in the cockpit (which emit occasional popping sparks), and the daylight streaming into the passenger compartment through the boarding hatch that is ajar. As you all come to, you hear Emily say "Ugh... sound off." With a clinking of metal she unbuckles her flight harness, and with a curse falls sideways, landing in an untidy heap on top of Alice who is still strapped in.

Outside you can hear the reports of distant explosions, and far away there is rumbling that sounds like a damned landslide. Tiny stones or fragments of rubble patter off the hull, and you can hear the 'dink' and 'ding' as it impacts the downed vertibird.

Given the room, the vertibird is travelling at approximately 130mph. It suffers 13d8 collision damage (45, AP 13). It fails the damage save. This isn't so bad, as it can still fail another 4 before it is totally destroyed.

Yanked roughly backed to consciousness through her latest task of being her copilot's LZ, Alice cursed loudly, barely resisting the reflex to jam her elbow into Emily. Groaning softly, she lifted her battered right arm and wipe blood from her eyes as she tried to look back into the cabin. "Anyone extra not ok?"

When he comes to, Franklin is lying upside down against the roof/side of the vertibird. This being a very uncomfortable position to be in, he weakly pushes himself off the roof, and falls down to the side with a thud. As he works enough feeling into his joints to get himself upright, he half grunts a reply Emily. "Ergh... 'm fine. Let's not do that again, yeah?"

When he's mostly upright again, he helps the others unbuckle and unload as best he can.

Logged

"After all is said and done, more is said than done."- AesopMortality clarified in a single strike!

Hondo is half buried in rubble outside the vertibird, thrown out the open hatch in the crash. He slowly rises, dirt and debris sloughing away as he straightens. He takes a moment to realize that we're on the ground, and then throws his head back with a whoop.